SSX 3 | DJcube

It’s You Against The Mountain

NA release: 21st October 2003
EU release: 31st October 2003
JP release: 18th December 2003
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: EA Sports BIG
NGC Magazine Score: 87%
Mods Used: None

While SSX Tricky was a tuned-up version of the first SSX game (something the game liked to remind you of by saying which courses were returning ones), SSX 3 changes things up even more, particularly in the structure of the game. All the tracks are part of three large peaks, which you can slide down at your leisure to start all the various events, or just go down for fun. It even has its own DJ, DJ Atomika, narrating events – a voice I know very well from many hours in Burnout Paradise.

It sounds like a nice idea, and was something I loved in Dark Summit, but it really amounts to nothing more than a convoluted menu and gets tiresome quite fast. The design also has an impact on the tracks, which all blend together. There are a few cool moments within tracks – like an avalanche or one where the mountain is cracking, but they’re all visually identical. The design itself- because it’s built into an open world – also takes a hit, as trying to find shortcuts is hit and miss as many count as “out of bounds”.

The gameplay itself is still good fun, although I didn’t like it as much as SSX Tricky. For some reason, the analogue stick does not let you spin – you have to use the GameCube’s pitiful D-pad instead. And as the D-pad steers anyway, you end up using that the whole time. Activating uber mode also feels much more subtle due to not having a big boisterous song alongside it. This was a bit disappointing for me.

One thing I did have to look into was to why all the 7-up advertising was upside down. This was actually a caffinated variant called “dnL”, and was a big flop.

Fun

As long as you play by the game’s ambiguous rules though, you’ll find a brilliantly enjoyable, often exhilarating downhill racer, whose grand ambitions clearly outshine its few shortcomings.
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #87

Remake or remaster?

An SXX collection would be nice.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get SSX 3.